South Korean module manufacturer Hanwha Q Cells Co. Ltd. reported unaudited results for the fourth quarter and full year 2017. Though the company increased module shipments by 18.7 percent from 4,583 MW in 2016 to 5,438 MW last year , total net revenues declined 10.2 percent from $2,425.9 million to $2,177.4 million.

Correspondingly, gross margin rate was 11.2 percent in 2017, compared with 18.1 percent in 2016. Operating income was $29.3 million, compared with $192.1 million. The company reports a net loss attributable to its ordinary shareholders of $9.2 million for 2017, while it had reached a net income of $127.5 million in 2016.
For Q4 2017, net revenues were $624.7 million, compared with $543.0 million in Q3 and $565.2 million in the Q4 2016. Operating loss was $29.7 million, compared with operating income of $10.6 million in Q3 and operating loss of $21.5 million in Q4 2016.

CFO Jay Seo noted that Hanwha Q Cells’s bottom line was negatively affected by a one-time loss associated with the discontinuation of its wafer manufacturing operations and bad debt expenses, without which the Company would have seen an improvement in its profitability due to elimination of losses resulting from unprofitable operations as well as a downward trend in wafer prices. The Company »observed a steady downward trend in wafer prices«, due to »reduced demand for monocrystalline wafers after the deadline for Top Runner projects in China, combined with additional mono wafer capacities coming on-line.«